Notifications

In the context of social media, notifications are automated messages, alerts, or updates concerning activities, events, or very important information related to a user’s account. As the user’s digital network becomes more active, it becomes more and more likely that something very important just happened close to home. This is when notifications become extremely pertinent.

They burgeon forth like a flower in spring, telling, informing, and serving to keep the user in-the-know about anything and everything occurring in their inner circle. The modern social media notification is a customizable affair. They can be sent to a user's mobile device, to a computer or laptop, or as an in-platform indicator.

They can be pop-ups, push messages that the user must swipe to get rid of, or emails. At least in part, notifications exist to get a user to re-engage with a platform. They are often, though not universally, sent to a user with the understanding that what the system is trying to tell them is based on something that was just done and is, therefore, very immediate and relevant.

Nevertheless, the risk of over-reliance on notifications is that the more 'helpful' these system prompts attempt to be, the more pushy and intrusive they become.